Stop the CULLING of PIGEONS

An unpublished letter by a cat caregiver written on this day, 2 years ago:

Date: 27 September 2016 at 6:24:13 PM SGT
To: Voices
Subject: Stop the CULLING of PIGEONS. It is INEFFECTIVE AND POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS TO PETS AND EVEN CHILDREN

On 27th September 2016 at 8.15am, on my way to work, I came across two Pest Controller Personnel at the back of a block of HDB flats, getting ready to poison pigeons.

I spoke to the Pest Controller Supervisor who agreed that poisoning the pigeons was ineffective and that the root problem was feeding by the residents, including food thrown from the flats. He said, "One Ah Pek just cycled here a while a ago to place a big bag of food for the pigeons." The Supervisor and his assistant both expressed uneasiness with the poisoning with visible sufferings of the pigeons when the poisons took effect. The Supervisor said, "What to do? We have to carry out orders from the town council."

I called the Town Council and spoke the Property Officer who gave the order for the task. The officer denied that he ordered poisoning and said that he just asked Pest Controller to institute "Preventive Measures". I am grateful to him for calling off the poisoning.

I have written to ACRES (http://www.acres.org.sg/) on this issue in 2013 and an email from Loius Ng (Founder and Chief Executive of ACRES) dated 21st February 2013 emphasizes on the following points:

1) Culling by poisoning is potentially dangerous to pets, wild animals and even children, who may consume the poisoned baits.

2) Culling the pigeons addresses only the symptoms of the problem. When culling is carried out on a pigeon population, the vacancies left by the dead birds are quickly filled by young birds. It has NO long-term effect.

3) The current expenditures on inhuman methods such as poisoning expended by the Town Council may not bring down the population, but in turn, increase over a period of time, increasing expenditures as well.

ACRES requested the Town Council to
1) Initiate a pilot project of using humane methods
2) Cease the current culling operations
3) Enforce action on feeding of pigeons by the public and
4) Raise awareness using pamphlets about total feeding ban.

I would like to call on the Town Council to educate all its property officers, especially the new ones, to stop poisoning the pigeons and to consult ACRES to resolve this problem effectively and stop risking the lives of children and pets to the poisons.


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13h

You and 5 others manage the membership, moderators, settings and posts for Sayang Our Singapore's CommunHere’s the statement from ACRES:

Even though there are diseases that can be spread from consumption and direct inhalation of pigeon faeces, it is very rare and we do not know of any cases recorded in Singapore.

The possible transmission can be a result of poor hygiene and contact. Keeping food sources covered, windows clean and preventing direct contact from the faeces are some basic measures to prevent any infection. This should be done rather than culling.

Pigeons breed based on food availability and they naturally regulate their population based on food availability. Approximately 90% of the pigeons die in their first year, mainly due to lack of food. However, mortality rates of adult pigeons are very low (11%).

Pigeons do not breed if there is insufficient food to feed their young. In Singapore’s case, pigeons get additional food sources from humans directly feeding, and improper food waste management.

When the food supply increases following a cull, pigeons will breed until the flock reaches a threshold to exploit all available food. It is estimated that there is a 15%-30% increment in the flock size over and above the pre-cull population. �

Studies done by University of Basel, Integrative Biology research group clearly points out that culling is not recommended as a long-term solution, as it has no long-lasting effect on population size, but allows quick replacement of killed individuals.

Culling this way, without addressing the food, nesting and roosting site availability does not not solve the problem and will only resulting in a wastage of funds year after year because culling has aggravated the problem.

The research and success stories from other countries place emphasis on education and enforcement components as a way forward.

Culling is scientifically proven to be ineffective method and we also have to consider the welfare of the affected animals be it a pigeon, other birds, dog or cat. Other animals have also been affected by the culling (https://www.straitstimes.com/.../dog-dies-after-eating...).

ACRES hopes that we can adopt more holistic measures that will address public concerns about the pigeons and measures that are humane, sustainable and cost-effective. We hope to work with the authorities to implement these measures.